Matt Donovan was recruited from a Boston orphanage when he was 7 after impressing the local priest with the strength of his faith in light of his parents death. For the next 10 years Matt lived in Vatican City being trained in the Word, the Sword, and everything the Church knew about the denizens of the dark. Now armed with his Holy Sword and Armor, and using his faith to work small amount of holy magic he returned to the United States to fight the Evil he has been trained for so long to destroy.
While hunting Vampires in Motor City he was contacted by the Margarette Ashe Foundation which invited him to join the Vindicators. Over the next year Paladin became friends with the other Vindicators, even Wolf, and was thus devestated by the death of one of his teammates. In the aftermath of that death he was ordered by the Inquisition to leave the group and go back to Europe where he could fight demons and vampires instead of paranormals. He still cares about his surviving teammates, and sends the team a letter through his mentor Brother John Muldoon once every two weeks.
Paladin spent time with The Vindicators, then later with the covert mystical team The Dragon Slayers. He currently works directly for The Vatican and seldom works with other heroes, though he is not averse to doing so when necessary.
PERSONALITY: Matt is one of the most devoutly faithful people on the planet, and a nice person to boot. He does however come off fairly cold to many people as he is obsessed with his mission and his duty to the Church. Also, having lived in the Vatican for the past decade under constant watch and pressure from both the priests and himself has made him one repressed young man. Added to this is the fact that he feels an extreme responsibility to do his duty and obey his faith in all matters, and the fact that the Church has basically told him the well being of Christendom rests on the shoulders of him and the other Inquisitors doesn't help any.
Being part of the Vindicators helped him loosen him up a little. Living and working with a werewolf helped him to realize that not all magic and magical creatures are by definition evil, while living in the same house as three women cured him of a lot of the nervousness in dealing with the fairer sex that his upbringing instilled. That said, he is still working out exactly what romantic and sexual constraints he is under in service to the Church, spurred on in this pursuit by his crush on the Vindicator Valiant.
POWERS/SKILLS: Paladin is one of the best swordsmen alive, having been trained in many skills of sword fighting over the past decade. He is also a capable martial artist. Paladin is also able to channel his faith to work a few minor magics; for example, he can heal minor wounds suffered by others and is a very skilled exorcist.
Paladin is well studied in both superstitious lore and modern knowledge concerning supernatural creatures. He is also a capable theologian. He is fluent in Italian, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.
EQUIPMENT: Paladin's sword and armor were made under the supervision of the Church but used the best available modern materials and techniques. As a result both armor and sword are extremely strong, light, and durable. Also the metal was blessed by Cardinals during it's forging and cooled with Holy Water blessed by the Pope himself, giving his armor an innate resistance to attacks by magic and supernatural beings and his sword the ability to pierce most magical defenses.
The armor is composed of 15 pieces; gauntlets, boots, forearm plates, upper arm plates, shin plates, thigh plates, chest plate, groin plate, and helmet. All plates are made of a super strong, very light alloy, and all are enchanted with the anti-magic. Under the armor plates is a chain mesh of the same enchanted alloy that extends past the plating to guard the joints.
After the armor is on Paladin recites the Prayer of the Malleus Maleficarum, one of his limited array of faith magics. This spell interacts with the enchantments on his armor, causing plates to meld along their latches into one seamless piece and the rings of the various pieces interweave. The result is that the entire suit is attached in such a way that no piece can be removed without first cutting the armor. The Prayer also activates the Anti-Magic aura on his armor and sword. Because it is his faith that maintains the spell if Paladin ever looses consciousness the armor pieces will detach and the Anti-Magic will drop. The entire process of putting on the armor and reciting the prayer takes only 7 minutes.
During his tenure with the Vindicators Paladin's armor was upgraged with an anti-magnetic field generator that will neutralize any magnetic field in a three-foot radius. It has a 5 minute battary and is voice activated ("Excaliber!") He also has a dirk with a carbon steel blade as a backup weapon. It is not enchanted, but will do in a pinch. Because the sheath to this dirk can detach from the armor and is small enough to conceal beneath his clothes he often wears this weapon when out of armor as a precaution.
APPEARANCE: Matt is 6 feet tall and is in very good shape from years of training. He has red hair cut short and deep green eyes. He usually dresses casually but when in battle wears his armor. His armor is gleaming white with a golden stylized cross on both the chest plate and the face plate. The bastard sword is worn on the back. Inscribed in latin along the blade are the words "The Good Lord giveth, and the Good Lord taketh away".